Year: 2014

Categories
Christian Living

Joyless Christians

“Joyless Christians”
by brian rushing

The Word: Oxymoron.
It means: A combination of words that seemingly contradict each other.
There are some great ones we hear and use:

Jumbo shrimp.
Paid volunteers.
An Exact Estimate.
A Rolling Stop.
An Original Copy.
Seriously Funny.
Pretty Ugly.

But how about… Joyless Christian.

Too many people have indicated that they have no interest in Christianity because Christians seem negative and unkind and joyless. They wonder how we can call our God a good God if He turns His followers into such sour individuals.

“We need frankly to face ourselves at this point. We are, perhaps, orthodox evangelicals. We can state the gospel clearly; we can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If asked how one may know God, we can at once produce the right formula: that we come to know God through Jesus Christ the Lord, in virtue of his cross and mediation, on the basis of his word of promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, via a personal exercise of faith. Yet the joy, goodness, and celebratory spirit which are the marks of those who have known God are rare among us.”

drawing of a smile on a brick wall to remind us to not be joyless ChristiansHow can this be?
How can we who have been given the greatest gift of all time ever be considered miserable?

Paul indicated that he had learned contentment in every circumstance. How could he have joy in the midst of the difficulties he encountered in life – including suffering and pain? Because he knew that he was loved… in spite of himself.

We all want love, and yet we all worry that if anyone knew the real me, that love would be taken away. But Jesus loved me at my worst. And so I do not have to have any fear that his love will ever be taken away. And that should fill me with such unbelievable joy that the world can never accuse me of being sour or joyless.

“There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.”

As you consider that you are loved immensely by the Great King of this Universe, let it fill you up with joy. Ask God to remind you of His love today.

How well are you doing at keeping people from labeling you as that oxymoron of a Joyless Christian?

Strive to wear a smile throughout the day. Be quick to laugh with others. Have an attitude of joy. It is the right attitude for a child of God.


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)


Categories
Worship

The Ignorance of God

“The Ignorance of God”
  by brian rushing

Sorry about the lack of any posts the last two-and-a-half weeks. I took a short break off from posting due to having a bit too much on my plate! You’ve been there, I’m sure. It is similar to being at grandma’s house when you are already full, but grandma insists that you need another portion of mashed potatoes, and so she serves you a few extra scoops against all your protests. You look at that fluffy mountain in front of you and wonder how you will be able to swallow another bite, much less finish it all! But you keep eating one bite at a time, until it is all gone. So I kept eating one bite at a time, and now am back on track with what seem to be regular portions on my plate. (though sometimes looks can be deceiving!) That being said, here we go again….

What do you know about God?
When you look up in the sky and see the vastness of this creation, do you feel that maybe you do not know enough?
a starry sky symbolizing our search in knowing God and our ignorance of Him and His ways
J. I. Packer wrote a book called Knowing God, and his reason for writing it was that he believed that the “ignorance of God — ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with Him — lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.”

God has given us His Word so that we can know Him. But how well do we know God? Maybe the question would be even stronger if each of us turned it upon ourselves: “How well do I know God?” Am I actually ignorant of Him and His ways? Ignorant might be too strong of a word, but certainly it makes me evaluate what I know about God.

And if I do know some things about God, “What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it?”

Will I take that knowledge and become proud and conceited about how much I know? We need to know things about God, but if we are gaining that knowledge for the wrong purpose, it can make us less spiritually healthy than we were before.

Here’s an example – In high school I was fairly physically fit (as were many of us). But then something happened after high school… my fitness seemed to leave me! (as seemed to happen to many of us!) Of course, I had been fit, so I knew how to lose weight and get physically healthy again. I had read plenty about having the right kind of diet and the types and amounts of exercises I needed to do. But I didn’t eat right and I didn’t exercise. I could get into a intellectual discussion with you about those things, because I had the right knowledge. I just didn’t apply the knowledge in a way that changed my life in any measurable way.

So, back to the spiritual area of life – will I use my knowledge about God in the same way as I used my knowledge about fitness? Will I just have it up in my head and use it in discussions that puff up my pride so I feel good about what I know, or will I use it to change my life in a measurable way?

       One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God. It depends on the sermons one hears, the books one reads, and the company one keeps. …there is no shortage of books or sermons on how to pray, how to witness, how to read our Bibles, how to tithe our money, how to be a young Christian, how to be an old Christian, how to be a happy Christian, how to lead people to Christ… and generally how to go through all the various motions associated with being a Christian believer.

…It certainly makes it possible to learn a great deal secondhand about the practice of Christianity. …One can have all this [knowledge] and hardly know God at all.

We come back, then, to where we started. The question is not whether we are good at theology…. The question is, can we say, simply, honestly, that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us?

If we really knew God, this is what we would be saying, and if we are not saying it, that is a sign that we need to face ourselves more sharply with the difference between knowing God and merely knowing about Him.

I want to know God intimately, deeply, and in a way that transforms my life. Don’t you?

So how can we get there? Stay tuned in the upcoming days for more thoughts on this with some assistance from Dr. Packer.

         (Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)

 

Categories
Serving Others

Am I Wasting My Life At Work?

“Am I Wasting My Life At Work?”
    by brian rushing

Work can be drudgery.
Work can be difficult.
Work can be thankless.
Work can be stressful.

At times, these feelings cause many people to wonder – “Am I wasting my life by working at my current job?”

photo of an office with many cubicles - symbolizing a place where people might ask - am I wasting my life
That same question might take a different form as we think about our work in light of our Christianity, especially when we think of ministers and missionaries. Then the form of the question might become, “Am I wasting my life by not working in a church-related occupation?”

Here is a concluding quote for us to remember about our work:

“…secular work is not a waste when we make much of Christ from 8 to 5. God’s will is that his people be scattered like salt and light in all legitimate vocations. His aim is to be known, because knowing him is life and joy. He does not call us out of the world. He does not remove the need to work. He does not destroy society and culture. Through his scattered saints he spreads a passion for his supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples.

If you work like the world, you will waste your life, no matter how rich you get.

But if your work creates a web of redemptive relationships and becomes an adornment for the Gospel of the glory of Christ, your satisfaction will last forever and God will be exalted in your joy.”


I totally agree with this statement that God’s aim is for people to know Him because knowing Him is life and joy. Therefore, wherever you are, you have an opportunity to use your workplace as a platform for creating relationships where people can see Christ in you – bringing them into the life and joy of beginning a relationship with Him.

Certainly ask the questions: “God what would you have me do as an occupation?” & “God where would you have me work for you?”

But while you are waiting for the answer, do not fret, worry, or despair… Instead, use your workplace as a platform for showing others how wonderful life is when it is lived out with Jesus. Doing so could never be considered a waste!

        (Quotes in today’s post are from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)


Categories
Serving Others

Making Much of God Through Your Work

“Making Much of God Through Your Work”
by brian rushing

There were several other helpful thoughts from John Piper on how we can “Make Much Of God” in our secular jobs. You can read my recent previous posts about this idea here:
     Taking Jesus All The Way To The Office
     Your Job is Your Mission Field
     Your Mission if You Choose To Accept It Is At Your Office

I didn’t want to take these next ideas and make a whole post about each one of them, but I did think that they were very helpful for me in continuing to think about how to live as a workplace pastor to my coworkers:

Work Is Good.
God is a creative, working God. His work included creating this world. He created us in His image and gave us the work of continuing to rule and shape His creation. “If you are not God, but like God—that is, if you are human— your work is to take what God has made and shape it and use it to make him look great.”

You Are Not a Beaver.
The difference between you and a beaver – “No beaver or bee or hummingbird or ant consciously relies on God.”

picture of a beaver symbolizing our work
photo from wikimedia commons; by steve from washington, dc.
A beaver does not think about God and make the conscious choice to work with excellence because God is excellent. No beaver decides for God’s sake to make a dam for another beaver and not for himself. But as a human, you have this potential, because you were created in God’s image. When God gives us work to do, he doesn’t mean for you to do it like a beaver. He means for you to do it intentionally for bringing Him glory.

“To be sure, when God sends us forth to work as his image-bearers, our ditches are to be dug straight, our pipe-fittings are not to leak, our cabinet corners should be flush, our surgical incisions should be clean, our word processing accurate and appealing, and our meals nutritious and attractive, because God is a God of order and beauty and competence. But cats are clean, and ants are industrious, and spiders produce orderly and beautiful works. And all of them are dependent on God. Therefore, the essence of our work as humans must be that it is done in conscious reliance on God’s power, and in conscious quest of God’s pattern of excellence, and in deliberate aim to reflect God’s glory.”

People See Christ Through You.
Have high standards of excellence and integrity and goodwill at your work. By doing so you remove obstacles in the way of the Gospel and call attention to the goodness and beauty of Jesus.

Your Conversations at Work Need to Change.
“Speaking the good news of Christ is part of why God put you in your job. He has woven you into the fabric of others’ lives so that you will tell them the Gospel. Without this, all our adorning behavior may lack the one thing that could make it life-giving…. The Christian’s calling includes making his or her mouth a fountain of life.” Our mouths must speak to others about Jesus. “No nice feelings about you as a good employee will save anyone.” Only by telling people that you are a good employee because of Jesus will move them toward Him- toward His grace and salvation.

Consider a Strategic Move
“For many of you the move toward missions and deeds of mercy will not be a move away from your work but with your work to another, more needy, less-reached part of the world. Christians should seriously ask not only what their vocation is, but where it should be lived out. We should not assume that teachers and carpenters and computer programmers and managers and CPAs and doctors and pilots should do their work in America. That very vocation may be better used in a country that is otherwise hard to get into, or in a place where poverty makes access to the Gospel difficult. In this way the web of relationships created by our work is not only strategic but intentional.”

Are you asking God the serious questions of:
God what occupation do you want me in?
Where do you want me to live and do my work?
How can I be a better workplace pastor to those I am working with?

        (Quotes in today’s post are from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)

Categories
Serving Others

Your Mission if You Choose to Accept It… Is At The Office

“”Your Mission if You Choose to Accept It… Is At The Office”
      by brian rushing

…or at the factory or school or hospital or wherever you work.

the mission impossible logo symbolizing our mission is at our office
I am about to wrap up these thoughts on being a witness in your workplace, but I think this idea is so very important for each one of us. I think that we too often believe that our work can only be considered a benefit to God’s Kingdom if we are in a church-related occupation. Nothing could be further from the truth. God has placed you where you can benefit His kingdom in the work you are presently in.

John Piper says that you should – “Stay In Your Job With God”:

The call to be a Christian was not a call to leave your secular vocation. Paul said: “So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God.” Paul’s view was that God had sovereignly “assigned” or “called” unbelievers to positions in life where their conversion would have significant impact for his glory. “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” Paul does not mean that changing jobs is wrong in the Christian life. What Paul does mean is that when we are converted we should not jump to the conclusion: “my job must change.” Rather our thought should be, God has put me here, and I should now display his worth in this job. Therefore, the burning question for most Christians should be: How can my life count for the glory of God in my secular vocation?



Many people in the secular world enjoy their work and have spent much time learning how to be effective in their field. Why feel that you must step out of the area where you are effective and which you enjoy. You can learn to “make much of God” by how you work in your secular job. Piper says the Bible gives us at least six ways in which a person can make much of God through their secular job:

1. through the fellowship that we enjoy with him throughout the day while at work.
“In other words, we enjoy God’s being there for us as we listen to his voice, and talk to him, and cast all our burdens on him, and experience his guidance and care. Christians do not just go to work. They go to work “with God.” They do not just do a job. They do their job “with God.” God is with them.

2. by imitating God in our creativity and industry.
God is at work and God is a creating, creative God. And He created us in His image to work and to create. As we do so with joy and satisfaction, we make much of Him.

3. by enhancing the portrait of Christ that people hear in the spoken Gospel.
As we share that we are Christians, our fellow employees will be watching to see what that means. How we conduct ourselves at work shows others a glimpse of the picture of Jesus.

4. by earning enough money to keep us from depending on others, while also focusing on how our work helps others.
“This is paradoxical. I am saying, yes, we should earn enough money to meet our needs. But, no, we should not make that the primary focus of why we work. Don’t labor merely with a view to the things you can buy with your earnings. Work with an eye not mainly to your money, but your usefulness. Work with a view to benefiting people with what you make or do. Labor to love people and honor God. Think of new ways that your work can bless people. Stop thinking mainly of profitability, and think mainly of how helpful your product or service can become.”

5. by earning money with the desire to use our money to make others glad in God.
God tells us to work to meet the needs of others. And here is one of my favorite lines about why we should work:
“You can steal to have. Or you can work to have. Or you can work to have to give. When the third option comes from joy in God’s goodness, it makes him look great in the world.”

6. by treating the web of relationships at work as a gift of God and to whom we share the Gospel and offer practical help.
God has placed people around you who need your love and help. Make Him look great to them by loving them and helping them as their workplace pastor.

Your place of employment is your mission field. Will you choose to accept your mission?


        (Quotes in today’s post are from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)